Sanders' staff unhappy with debate shift to foreign policy

By Curt Mills, Curt Mills

Published December 20, 2015

Aides to Bernie Sanders are unhappy with CBS' plan to shift much of the focus of Saturday's presidential debate to foreign policy in the wake of the Paris attacks.

An aide to Sanders apparently got into a "heated" and "bizarre" argument with CBS executives Saturday on a conference call between the network and the three Democratic presidential campaigns.

"It was a little bit of a bizarre scene. The Sanders representative, you know, really laid into CBS and basically … kind of threw, like, a little bit of a fit and said, 'You are trying to turn this into a foreign policy debate. That's not what any of us agreed to. How can you change the terms of the debate, you know, on the day of the debate. That's not right," a source recounted to Yahoo News, which also reports that the Clinton and O'Malley campaigns are on board with the planned shift.

Yahoo's source is a "rival staffer" for another campaign.

This staffer alleges the argument was between Sanders strategist Mark Longabaugh and CBS Washington bureau chief Christopher Isham. The staff also disclosed information about the format changes, including that the Paris attacks will lead the debate agenda.